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As Elon Musk Promotes Far-Right German Party, EU Politicians Suggest Shutting Off X's Algorithm (gizmodo.com)
submitted 2 months ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] grue@lemmy.world 168 points 2 months ago

Shutting Off X's Algorithm

Hey EU, that's not how any of this works. First of all, you do not have any control over that -- even if you demand it be done, there's no way to verify compliance. Second, there's always an "algorithm." There can't not be an "algorithm;" that would mean it would display nothing at all. Even the choice to just display tweets chronologically is still a choice, and implemented in the form of an "algorithm."

What you do have the power to do -- and what you should do -- is simply just straight-up block X entirely.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 127 points 2 months ago

Worked brilliantly for the Brazilian government. Lulu pulled the plug for... a week? BlueSky suddenly got incredibly popular. Musk panicked and folded on every demand. And the amount of pro-Bolsonaro/coup-posting on Twitter sank like a brick.

[-] vanderbilt@lemmy.world 41 points 2 months ago

Realistically I think that is why banning him even as a brief show of force will be very effective. He understands pain, it’s the universal language.

[-] nawa@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago

Literally the only rule Musk follows is the rule of power. Legal shit means nothing, might is right. So yeah, govs should deal with him the same way before it's too late.

[-] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago

Oh they can turn off musk's algorithm quite easily: just ban the whole fucking site.

He's folded like origami on this already, and he'll do it again.

[-] zeca@lemmy.eco.br 15 points 2 months ago

he folded to brazilian courts last year. but now, with trump in power, he may have more means to pressure back.

[-] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 9 points 2 months ago

If WWIII broke out over the EU blocking Twitter and the US lost would Musk take a cyanide pill?

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[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

I wouldn’t call reverse chronological order with blocks accounted for an algorithm.

Twitter didn’t always have an algorithm.

Mastodon does not have an algorithm. Or am I not being inclusive enough in my definition?

[-] zeca@lemmy.eco.br 32 points 2 months ago

to not piss off computer scientists and mathematicians with their dear word "algorithm", you may want to narrow it down with the expression recommendation algorithms.

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[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 14 points 2 months ago

Even trivial sorting algorithms are still called algorithms.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

An important thing to consider: Mastodon doesn't have an "algorithm" for presenting posts in your subscription feed.

That doesn't mean it "does not have an algorithm" entirely, though. There's a couple of non-trivial ones being used to recommend friends and calculate the trending posts and tags that show up on the front page, and they do actually consider likes/shares as part of scoring.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/54e20301462b381f27c50ed305abeedde1ace878/app/models/trends/statuses.rb#L98

[-] makyo@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Yeah an algorithm is a series of mathematic instructions so from my armchair I'd say sort by date is not an algorithm. But to complicate things further there seems to be a sticking point with some that social media uses heuristics and not algorithms. I don't really understand the difference nor do I really care as this is all too much about semantics - /u/grue's final point is still spot on IMO. Why mess with letting a billionaire toy with the minds of your citizens? Let the USA have twitter and all that chaos to themselves.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 20 points 2 months ago

You should take your armchair to be reupholstered or something, because sorting things is like the primary type of algorithm. Even if it's as straightforward as "sort by date", since objects in the database are not stored by date, they have to be sorted to get them displayed by date.

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[-] cupcakezealot 123 points 2 months ago

just grow a pair and ban twitter, spacex, starlink, and tesla from operating in europe already.

there's no good reason to let them operate.

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 48 points 2 months ago

They’re mostly all national security threats, especially with Elon and Putin having a special relationship.

[-] just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago

I mean AfD is also pro-russia AND have neo-nazi's in its ranks.

They are at 20% in polls just before the german election.

I don't think many people have as many issues as they should have with russia or they just don't care.

[-] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 6 points 2 months ago

don't ban starlink pls

[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Why not? Asking genuinely.

[-] desktop_user 15 points 2 months ago

Ukraine and other countries where fixed infrastructure is failing iirc benefit from having low cost Internet access.

[-] twei@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Have you never been to small and poor ^/s^ countries like Germany where this sometimes is the best option for getting internet access? ^/srs^
Edit: Added tone indicators because no one got it

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[-] Defectus@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Tesla is getting a buttload of cash from the EU soon in climate compensation (also Volvo but not so much).

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[-] gibmiser@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago

Fractured internet here we come

[-] ECB@feddit.org 21 points 2 months ago

I know this is unpopular and goes against the ideals of the early internet, but the open internet (especially social networks) is hugely damaging at the moment.

This isn't just "people having different opinions", but rather full-scale cyber warfare that's currently happening. It's also only going to get worse...

Propaganda works, and it works quite well. Nobody is fully immune.

So unless you feel like having Musk/Russia/China dictate your life (through forcing their shit agenda), banning their attack vectors is really the only play.

[-] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Oh cum on! Don’t tell me you gonna try for twitter?

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

This is what I was worried about with tiktok being banned.

I don't have a tiktok. I don't like the concept. I won't be joining loops. I just don't like the core concept.

Now add in that it's a chinese spying tool, and I'm all the way out.

Buuuuuuut it does pose a tricky situation. Ban it, and set a precident that banning social networks is ok. Maybe they ban the fediverse next. We all know this country is run by billionaires and big business. We all know that the onlu reason tiktok is banned is because it competes with X, and Elon is basically president now.

So what stops them from banning the fediverse? Every single instance is now illegal. And since the fediverse is so unknown, it's not like there would be much pushback politically.

So. Ban the chinese spy tool, or defend net nuetrality?

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

TikTok competes with X

So 1: your chronology is wrong, because this was all done under Biden, 2: Trump apparently is asking the SC to intercede on TikToks behalf and keep them going, and 3: in what way does a short video thing for braindamaged teens compete with twitter?

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Ban the chinese spy tool

Americans: "TikTok is an insidious weapon of a foreign government used to brainwash our children into believing all sorts of horrifying leftist ideas."

Also Americans: "If you don't like Twitter, just turn off your phone. I don't see what the big deal is. Edward Whoden? You sound like a Russian bot."

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

At what point did I discredit Edward Snowden, or defend twitter?

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[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 months ago

It's already here

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 35 points 2 months ago

Let me paraphrase a Hungarian saying in English, related to doing the bare minimum:

Thank you for going to the toilet and not taking a shit right where you were!

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[-] Nunar@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago

Elons x needs to die

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Better shut off the complete platform. And issue an international arrest warrant for foreign poitical influence / election interference.

[-] Siegfried@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago

Kill X already

[-] sleepmode@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago

Just do it. Stop yapping, start doing. The hemming and hawing and trying to be proper about this shit is infuriating. They don’t play by the rules so, fuck it - pull a Brazil and yank the rug out. It worked.

[-] arc@lemm.ee 18 points 2 months ago

Democracies have to start making laws that stop assholes like Musk from interfering in their domestic politics - including and up to imposing heavy fines, service shutdown and personal criminal liability. If a person is not a national and domiciled in that country they should have no right to influence that election through campaign contributions or any other assistance.

[-] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Musk and russia. Russia has been a far greater problem and is also behind many stupid musk takes.

[-] mrslt@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Yes, please.

[-] Geobloke@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago

The government is allowed to mess with cokes recipe because we don't want it to be too bad for people's health. I don't see why we shouldn't mess with algorithms to protect our personal and national health

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[-] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 months ago

Lets use their playbook: The only way to protect the electoion in less than 2 months, is to block Twitter and Facebook in germany completely.

Let them go to the courts, I'm sure we can find a lawyer or 2 skilled enough to draw out the process for 6-8 weeks. After that, whatever, unblock them, pay some "sorry we were wrong" money.

Then we have 4 years to solve the problem in a more permanent way.

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[-] riodoro1@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

If only they wanted to do it as bad as they want to pass chat control. The western organizations are such a fucking joke.

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this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
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